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Love & Monsters

Roots:Who Killed Kennedy, Return of the Living Dad, Doctor Who fan culture. Video diaries. Elton mentions the Electric Light Orchestra, and LINDA plays some of their music. He also quotes Stephen King. The Abzorbaloff was the winner of a Blue Peter design a monster competition, the winner being a kid who lived down the road from my parents.

It's surprising that nobody notices the clearly audible screams as their friends are being absorbed behind them. [This is Elton's memory exaggerating.]

Just why does Elton keep Rose's picture in his jacket pocket when going to visit Jackie?

Why does Mr Skinner believe Victor Kennedy's claim about having numbers for Bridget when he's already been phoning her, and thus already has her phone number. [His brain is addled due to being in love.]

Why don't any of the absorbed people speak at any point before Mr Skinner does? [Kennedy's camouflage prevents this.]

If Kennedy can't let Elton go free as he's seen his true form, why does he chase him through the streets in his true form?

As Elton asks Rose, why are she and the Doctor more interested in him having upset her mum than in the big absorbing monster from outer space? And how does Rose recognise Elton as the guy who upset her mum anyway? [Perhaps they've been tracking him down from DNA samples he left around the flat.]

The Abzorbaloff's limitation field is odd. If the form we see is its natural form, as it claims, then why does it require a limitation field to stop it being absorbed by the Earth? [Perhaps conditions on Clom are different and whilst on Earth it needs the field to stop itself trying to absorb the entire planet.]

Dialogue Disasters: Jackie's attempts to seduce Elton.

Continuity: Elton Pope first met the Doctor when aged 3 or 4, the Doctor was downstairs in his house. His day job is a transport manager in retail logistics with a modest little haulage company. He likes football, drinking, Spain, and Jeff Lynne and the Electric Light Orchestra. He names the group of Doctor fanatics "London Investigation 'N' Detective Agency" or LINDA.

Ursula Blake ran a blog which includes photos of the Doctor from The Christmas Invasion and only lived half a mile away from Elton. The Tardisode establishes that LINDA maintained a website [it's a continuation of Ursula's blog].

Colin Skinner was always called Mr Skinner. He has started writing a book.

Bridget has a daughter who went missing, and whom she assumes travelled down from their home in the north to London. Bridget looks for her daughter every week.

Mickey used to do Jackie's odd jobs.

The Abzorbalof is from Clom, the twin planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius. His attitude to the Raxacoricofallapatorians is to say that he spits on them. He can absorb other beings by touch, and is insistent that nobody touch him when he is in his human disguise. The most recently absorbed beings are able to act and speak to a certain extent - including pulling together to cause him pain. [Whilst on Earth] he requires a limitation field to prevent him from being absorbed by the planet. He somehow managed to get access to Torchwood's files about the Doctor.

The sonic screwdriver is able to retrieve the consciousness and at least part of the physical form of an Abzorbalof's last victim after the Abzorbalof has been absorbed.

Links: Elton has flashbacks to the events of Rose - where he has a Henrik's bag, Aliens of London, and The Christmas Invasion. Victor Kennedy has had access to Torchwood files, though their information on Rose has been corrupted by the Bad Wolf virus. Jackie mentions Mickey no longer being around (The Age of Steel). Rose mentions the Slitheen (Aliens of London/World War Three, The Monsters Inside, and Boom Town).

Extras: This story has an episode of Doctor Who Confidential. The BBC created a one-minute trailer called a "Tardisode" for each episode of series two, which was available to download on your mobile or watch at the BBC website. They also made a commentary track available online, and with the red button during the digital repeats. Neither is still available online.

Location: London, 25th March 2005, March and December 2006, various times in 2007. The main events take place "two years" after Rose.

Unrecorded Adventures: The Doctor and Rose's encounter with the Hoix (named only in the credits) is mostly unrecorded. The Doctor tracked down a living shadow - an elemental shade that had escaped from the Howling Halls to Elton's childhood house, but only stopped it after it had killed his mother.

The Bottom Line: 'I was looking for the Doctor.' Either a big Doctorless mess with lots of plot holes and a fairly lame monster (Even Rose says that it looks a bit Slitheen) or a great character-driven story about the impact the Doctor has on those around him, Love & Monsters is a marmite story. Elton is particularly well-played.

Discontinuity Guide by Stephen Gray

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